Friday, November 23, 2012

Education Ministry patches botched written reply

It
was a case of "now you see it, now you don't" at Parliament yesterday
when the Education Ministry scrambled to amend a written ministerial
reply, possibly to avert a backlash from Chinese voters.

Two
days ago, the ministry had issued a written reply to Pandan MP Ong Tee
Keat who had sought an explanation on the whether there are different
considerations for applications to set up private schools, international
schools and private Chinese schools.

Ong, who is former MCA chief, had also asked what were the restrictions that were imposed on such schools.

Among
other issues, the ministry had replied that applications for Chinese
independent schools were "no longer open" because such schools run a
curriculum not conforming to the national curriculum.

Following
this, the Education Ministry sent out a revised copy of written reply
to the press in which references to the cessation of applications for
Chinese private schools were removed.

Instead, the new reply
stated that 60 Chinese independent high schools exist because of legacy
reasons. [Scroll down to see comparison of both replies.]

"After
the Education Act 1961 was in force, some secondary schools chose to
adopt the national curriculum and were classified as SMJK, or
'conforming schools', while the rest became Chinese independent schools.

"This
statement is in line with speech by Najib Abdul Razak (as then
education minister) when tabling the Education Regulation Bill 1995 on
Dec 18, 1995," he said.

The revised copy was sent through email
to news organisations. Normally, a written reply can only be obtained
from the media room in Parliament or directly from the MPs.

An
Education Ministry official, who requested anonymity, said that written
reply that was made available in Parliament was a draft that had yet to
be scrutinised by the education minister's office.

English is okay

The
written reply comes at a time when Chinese educationist group Dong Zong
is on an aggressive campaign for the establishment of several Chinese
independent high schools.

The group hasscored a victory in Kuantan, which currently has no independent secondary schools, and is now focusing on getting government approval for another independent school in Segamat, Johor.

Meanwhile, the written reply explained that entrepreneurs were allowed
to establish independent schools which used Malay as the medium of
instruction or international schools which used English as part of a
liberalisation policy.

The entrepreneurs' financial capabilities,
teaching strength, specialisation and availability of a suitable
location would be taken into consideration.

Applications for new Chinese independent schools were however not addressed directly.

Contacted later, Ong said the issuance of a new written reply was
"baffling" and he has never encountered such an incident in his
political career. He added that the new written reply was placed on the
bench where he sits in Dewan Rakyat.